The Isle of Man Paddlesurf Association ran a surf kayaking and waveski competition for its members at Brewery Beach near Port St Mary.

This was the first kayak surf competition held in the island for many years and the first to run largely based on World Surf Kayak Association rules and heat formats.

Competitors paddled in heats of up to five participants.

The mixed heats were: developer, international class, which are surf- specific about three-metre-long kayaks; high performance, which are surf-specific kayaks below 2.75 metres and waveski, an open-topped craft somewhere between a kayak and a surfboard.

Meanwhile, those not on the water alternated providing safety cover and judging the waves on display.

The developers category was made up of kayakers broadly new to competition, while high performance and international class featured some of the island’s best surf kayakers who have previously competed in both UK and international events.

The waveski exhibition heat ran to showcase the local potential of that particular craft type which is very popular in France, Australia and South Africa.

The stormy winter weather provided perfect surf conditions with set waves rolling in over double head height to those seated in kayaks on the first day of the competition.

Day two improved further with the offshore wind holding up the waves well.

Nick Watt excelled in the developers category where he won in all three of the round robin heats.

Open high performance was the most widely subscribed category with competitors progressing through two knock-out rounds before reaching the final.

The international class proved to be a favourite with the spectators.

They enjoyed seeing the three-metre long kayaks, which enabled the paddlers to catch longer rides over the 20-minute heat.

The winner of the waveski exhibitions heat was Daniel Shimmin, with second place going to Richard Cregeen-Watson and third place to Steve Watt.

The winner of the mixed developers was Nick Watt, with second place going to Jack Scarlett and joint third place going to Laura O’Reilly and Alex Kissack.

The winner of the open high performance heat went to Richard Cregeen-Watson with second place going to Daniel Shimmin and third place to Gerry Quinn.

Finally, the open international class winner was Richard Cregeen-Watson, with second place going to Matthew Ripley and third place to James Robertson.

lYou can find out more information on the Isle of Man Paddlesurf’s Facebook page, and if you are interested in taking part you can contact it on Facebook.